I am deeply grateful that there is no Marvel superhero called Lice-Man (as far as I know) — I wouldn’t be able to stop scratching myself for a week.

I am also completely amazed that an Ant-Man movie actually got made. I mean, Avenger or no, he’s not the most well-known in the public sphere. Plus, “tons of bugs” is rarely a selling point with cinematic audiences (see Joe’s Apartment, et al). I guess it’s a testimony to the powerhouse of the Marvel namebrand these days that they’re able to push something like this out of the door with all seriousness and be rewarded for it. Then again, it wasn’t like Iron Man was on the average person’s lips until the movie took him from B-list to A-list overnight.

So with the Ant-Man movie comes Ant-Man to Marvel Heroes, because how could the studio resist? It’s going to be the last film in a while where a headlining character isn’t already in the game (Doctor Strange, Black Panther, Captain Marvel are upcoming movies, but their characters have long been in MH). Might as well make the most of it.

I’ve been growing in excitement over playing this character, so it was a good day when I finally got to slip into his powered suit and take it out for a test drive. I’m taking him through the new consolidated story mode instead of doing the Midtown/ICP/legendary quest route, just to see how it handles. So far leveling feels on pace, although it’s somewhat more difficult to gear him up.

The combination of flavors is what makes Ant-Man tick. He’s a brawler (I particularly like the skill that sends him ping-ponging between nearby foes to punch their lights out), he’s got gadgets, he can shrink (and grow), and he controls 10,000 ants at a time. Visually, it’s a treat to see him constantly change size and do some pretty wacky things, but for me it’s all about the ants.

I was hoping that his ant mastery would translate into an epic summoner, but I guess Gazillion is full up on summoners right now and decided to take a slightly different tack. While he does get to bring out a slew of ants (nicely animated in moving swarms) on command, they’re more there as a resource to be used up in special attacks than a constant moving DoT (aka Squirrel Girl’s army). The attacks are pretty neat, tho; I like the giant fist of ants that bursts out of the ground to deal damage to a cluster of enemies.

What I’ve ended up using a lot more than ants, even, is his blaster cone attack. It looks pretty cool and attacks in a nice wide swath in front of him.

While there’s a sense of novelty and some potential here, Ant-Man’s getting really mixed reviews on the forums, with many saying that he is underpowered and doesn’t have any good builds available yet. I’m still trying to figure out a rotation and what skills work best, but I will lend my voices to those who think that the ant mechanic needs some reworking.

I need a lot more time with Ant-Man before coming to any sort of judgment on him, but I will say that he’s a hero that doesn’t stand still for long. Lots of movement and size adjustment, all while using ants to control the battlefield. Could be something. I sure hope so, because I’m fairly invested at this point.

3 thoughts on “Marvel Heroes: The Ant-Man cometh”

I remember when the Ant-Man movie was announced, there was a big steaming pile of “WTF?” around. I’ve been told it’s a good movie by people whose judgement I trust, but still they could have done Captain Marvel ahead of Ant-Man.

Ant-Man hasn’t always been a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The scripting for it and its original director began working on it as early as 2006. When drama happened and things changed, they brought it more in like with the MCU, but that’s probably the biggest reason it came out when it did rather than later on.

I saw the movie the other day and thoroughly enjoyed it. Like Guardians of the Galaxy, it manages to take comic book characters that non-geeks have never heard of and deliver them in a way that everyone can relate to whilst slipping in some knowing winks to the fans.
I also picked up the in-game character, and I’m not enjoying it so much. I’m not bothered about whether he’s under-powered or not, I’m just not really ‘feeling’ it. Time to put the ant back on the shelf and finish levelling Nightcrawler and Black Widow.